ROME (Reuters) - The Italian government will pass legislation to force a clean-up of the ILVA steel plant in the south of the country and resolve a pollution scandal that threatened to shut down the plant, Environment Minister Corrado Clini said on Wednesday.
Europe's largest steel plant has stopped production and faces permanent closure after magistrates this week seized semi-finished material and steel in an investigation into a widening environmental scandal.
The huge plant in the city of Taranto in the Puglia region has been accused of pumping out particle-laden fumes and waste. The pollution is blamed for abnormally high levels of cancer in the region. But the plant also employs some 12,000 people, and another 8,000 depend on it for their jobs.